Do you sign your cover letters?

[signornot]

Do you all sign your cover letters? What about letters you send electronically? I just found out that my department scans faculty members' signed letters before sending them electronically.

[Sign]

I sign the letters that I send through regular mail but I have not been signing the ones I send electronically. However, I just found out a fellow colleague on the market prints hers out on department letter head (which I do also if sending through regular mail) but then signs, scans, and sends electronically. I may start to do this as I think it looks nicer.

[sharp]

You could also just make a .jpg of your signature and then insert the picture into your letter.

[top100program]

I managed to make a fairly decent signature with MS Paint. I post that in as a jpeg like Sharp.

[goodidea]

That's a great idea! Thanks for sharing. Much less work than scanning each letter each time.

[Dit Toe]

Ditto to the .jpg of the signature. Easy to embed in a Word letter, then PDF the letter. Looks good and no need to scan a letter each time.

[Scanner]

Take the time to scan a good copy of your signature (600 dpi) Blue ink is a good idea too, it looks more "authentic" than black. (Okay I'm a little nutty.) Do the same for the stationery (if you use it). I have a Word template with the stationery header and footer and my signature along with my basic cover letter. (Actually I have two -- one for SLACs and one for research institutions.) Depending on the job I can tailor a cover letter in 10 minutes, save it as a PDF and it looks identical to a scanned letter. Maybe a little better.

[overkill]

Don't over think this. The search committee does not care. If it makes you feel better to go to a lot of extra trouble and you have the time and you enjoy the fiddling, go ahead, but that time is probably much better spent getting a manuscript out (or your dissertation finished).